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Subscribe to RSSA Senate Republican fiscal hawk offered a 74-page menu of Defense Department spending cuts Thursday that could save taxpayers nearly $68 billion over 10 years. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he and his staff had identified several categories of “non-defense spending at the Pentagon,” outlays which he said had “little to do with national security.”
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Sen. Tom Coburn speaks to a journalist at the U.S. Capitol September 19, 2012 in Washington, DC.
At a Capitol Hill press conference, Coburn accused his fellow Senate Republicans of “having a blind eye on spending.” He summed up their approach as “It’s OK to cut spending anywhere except the Defense Department.”
But, he said “to be legitimate and have any integrity on the issue … everything has to be on the table.”
In the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30, defense outlays amounted to $651 billion, 18 percent of total federal spending, which was a decline of about 3 percent from the prior fiscal year.
One target of Coburn’s proposed cuts is personnel. He said there were too many admirals and other high-ranking officers for the size of the military. “We almost now have an admiral for every ship in the Navy,” he told reporters.
Despite much dire talk about the impeding spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act – which is part of the “fiscal cliff” at year’s end – there have been “no real cuts yet to the Pentagon,” Coburn said.
Chuck Schumer and Tom Coburn visit Meet the Press to discuss CIA Chief David Petraeus' resignation, the impending fiscal cliff and the aftermath of the 2012 race.
He said members of Congress hadn’t gotten some of “hoped-for, desired increases in spending – and so therefore if we didn’t get the increase in spending, we call that a ‘cut’ in Washington.”
Coburn has also proposed a bill to audit the Defense Department. “One of the biggest problems in the Pentagon is that they have no idea where they’re spending their money – and if you can’t account for it, you can’t measure it and you can’t manage it.”
He said, “I’m a budget hawk, but I’m also a military hawk – I want us to have the best equipment, the best equipped military in the world.” But when the Pentagon buys jets, missiles and other military hardware, Coburn said “we’re getting a whole lot less and spending a whole lot more.”
He also said, “Congress is a failure when it comes to oversight – and beneath that, we’re a failure when we write legislation because we give way too much authority and judgment to the bureaucracies – and the reason we do that is that we don’t know what we’re talking about, so we have to (give authority to executive branch bureaucrats), because we’re not up to speed in terms of level of knowledge … when we legislate.”
Coburn also said $37 billion in cost savings could be achieved by not assigning 340,000 members of the armed forces tasks that could be performed by civilians. He cited an analysis by Defense Business Board, an outside group of veterans and civilians which advises the defense secretary, which found “there is a sizable portion of the active military who are performing what would otherwise be not inherently government work or work that should be more appropriately assigned to DoD civilians. The military are compensated at rates substantially greater than their civilian counterparts….”
Although he’s not a member of his party’s Senate leadership and not a member of the Appropriations or Armed Services committees, Coburn does have some credibility on fiscal matters. He served on the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission in 2010 and voted for its recommendations of spending cuts and revenue increases through limiting or even eliminating tax deductions and other tax breaks, such as the tax-free status for most people of employer-provided health insurance.
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I voted for the president and, to tell the truth ,this country needs more leaders like Coburn. 1 senator who puts country first on this issue.
Yep, he's offered to cut defense spending by a whopping 1%, so now he's a hero? Maybe he's just seeing if US suckers will be satisfied.
Maybe you should read his deficit reduction book "Back in Black". Then talk about the one percent. One other thing he is a Doctor. That means he can return to practice upon leaving office. Hmmmmmmm wonder what his feelings are on the Affordable Care act???
Coburn is my Senator and he is far right on social issues, but he is a pragmatist who has some good ideas. He does not believe in climate change or evolution, but atleast he still believes in math which is more than can be said for the rest of the OK Congressional Delegation. My personal Representative in Congress, Little Loopy James "Lanky" Lankford was the head councilor at the big Baptist Church Camp, Falls Creek, prior to getting elected to Congress. He is a total embarrassment to the district, but he got over 60% of the vote for re-election. Coburn did not sign Grover Norquist's stupid pledge and has promised not to run for re-election, so he is not worried about being targeted by the flea farty if he compromises with the Dems to get a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. E-mail Coburn and encourage him to remain strong. The mainline GOPOX will be real mad at him if he doesn't obstruct progress.
Glad the GOP is finally seeing the light. This is one area where I have been unable to defend their actions. We are facing some serious fiscal problems and everything needs to be cut to save the country. They come across as hypocrites when they complain about spending, but refuse to touch the military.
$68B amounts to about $6.8 billion per year, or just over 1% of the Defense Budget. Nice start, but my guess there is much more! We spend more on defense than the next 15 countries combined. We spend 5 times more than the Chinese and 11 times more than the Russians. China is out second largest trading partners (right behind Canada). The other 13 countries have been our allies since 1945! Really, only $6.8 billion per year!
Very good first step. Let the fiscal reviews of ALL spending begin and let's have the political will to eliminate what we don't need.
Thanks Sen. Coburn for your willingness to look at our Defense budget with clear eyes and come up with some worthwhile suggestions for cutting waste in this budget. I admire you for your courage in a Party which has consistently turned a blind eye to eliminating waste in the Defense budget, a budget which has become so bloated it requires the top five nations on defense spending to match our defense spending in one year.
Way to go Democrats. Cheating a presidential election. This may cause vast social unrest.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/the-big-list-of-vote-fraud-reports/
WND? lol
Reminds me of Bush 2000
I'm a supporter of President Obama and his policies. Coburn, though, looks like one of the old style Republicans with something to say. He and his ilk and the center Democrats were patriotic Americans who were problem solvers. I, for one, think Coburn's proposal is worth strong consideration. On the surface, it looks like something the American people want to see. Let the right wing go play with their white sheets and burn some crosses. Disgraceful bastards.
stop it with the sheets and crosses crap. you should be banned from commenting.
reasonableewomannyc: Obviously, you don't live in the south! It's a different world down here!
reasonablewomannyc: Google KKK and read it! Notice in my post above #58 that I made a real distinction between moderate Republicans and poorly educated, far right wing, extremist, fanatics. It's time to understand the real world!
husband worked for small engine manufacturer in wisconsin. every year near the end of government fiscal year they received large order for engines. engines were shipped to government aution depot where they were sold at public auction as excess inventory at a fraction of the cost .. this happened every year----the government purchasing agent said they had to spend their entire budget in order to request more money in the next years request. insanity!! how do we stop it?
Is this a joke? 68 billion dollars over ten years out of a military which has stated outlays of 650 billion dollars in ONE year is a joke. And America's military, all things considered really costs much more than the bare bones annual defense budget.
It's time America faced up to the fact that our military is unsustainable. We cannot be the policeman of the world - especially defending other countries with our money.
Besides attacking the out of control fraud and abuse, the entire military needs to be downsized.
And either the U.S. government has to do it, or events will overtake us and do it for them, Russian style (that is, a military that falls apart because no one can pay for it anymore). The time of annual trillion dollar military outlays - it comes to more than a trillion dollars when you add in homeland security, NRO, interest on past military expenditures, off budget war spending, are over.
Every year of refusing to face up to this fact, continuing to try to pay for that which we cannot pay for, is another year of agony for the American people.
The military needs to be cut to a third of its present size, fiscally. That will mean closing overseas bases, scrapping aircraft carriers, doing away with bloated nuclear deterrant forces, and scrapping runaway technology projects.
This will entail a wholesale rethinking of the entire purpose of the military and what we use it for. Wars in the Middle East, in the area of North Korea, China, need to be out. And why are we defending our competitors in Japan and South Korea? They need to be paying for their own defense.
The waste and corruption at the Pentagon is legendary, but the hawks have indeed turned a blind eye to the whole sorry affair, after all, the more the contractors make the more they get from the contractors.
It sould be remember that a load of pallets with cash amounting to nine billion dollars "disappeared" on arrival in Irak. We stil have to find out into what pockets this money "disappeared."
But of course the Pentagon never learned about it. Right.
And this guy Coburn is just offering a token gesture in order to appear that the GOP really cares about the budget. A drop in the bucket, excuse me, in the ocean.
Tom Coburn for PRESIDENT. I am a Republican and voted for Romney but this was lacking before. EVERYONE needs to come to the table and sacrifice. EVERYONE. No free rides for anyone and we cant have unilateral cuts.
It should be a minimal 10% every year that would be $68,000,000,000
raise taxes 2% first year, 3% second year, then 4% and cut loopholes!!
cut post office 10% every year also!!
TM508 - Since the USPS is not funded by the Federal Government except by purchase of services it does not affect the overall US budget. Been that way for decades.
Then Why is it 15 Billon dollars in Debt ??
Look at the pie chart of how much is being spent on the military-industrial complex! They don't call them the "Beltway Bandits" for nothing. Thank you for calling out the biggest problem we have in balancing the budget! Let's put people above weapons! The next war will be nuclear and we need to prepare for the consequences instead of the ground and air warfare we are still subsidizing.
The DoD budget is 18% of the total US budget. You could completely zero it out and still be running a massive deficit. Without cuts elsewhere and revenue increases, the DoD cuts that can be made and need to be made are just a drop in the bucket.
The TPGOP will be targeting Coburn next chance they get. No moderates allowed in the new TPGOP.
it is the tip of the iceberg before it is all over they will for sure cut a lot more than that.....
As the situation degrades they will drop the surgeons knife and whip out the machette.
No more defense as social welfare and subsise for the ultra rich. Innovation dollars spent on defense in general do not roll back as benefits to the society in general. We hav epractical problems that need solving and defense has drianed too many of the brains.
What problems ? Wind, Solar. Energy storage (batteries), fuel cell technology. Room temperature super conductors, very large scale water desalination.
If I take all the money that I spend on fuel to move cars and make electricity and covert all the vehicles and plant to soalr and wind, I do not need to but all that oil, gas and coal. Is that a GDP reduction ? Now I have all that money sitting in my pocket that I used to spend on fuel. What can I do with it now ?
Folly you say ? Well there used to be steam rail in the USA and on it you could go to nearly any town in the country. Take a ride on a stream powered train lately ?
No Lobbyist money for you!
But good start and pray that you will get re-elected again.
To me this is the actions of angry old men who haven't had any in a long time and are taking it out on their children. The TEA-Republican's lost the presidency, the Senate and House seats through their own demise. Rather than stand up like men and women, they point at shadows and ghosts of their own making.
The most immediate challenge is the fiscal cliff, which threatens to push America back into recession, unless Democrats and Republicans in Congress -- working with the White House -- can cast aside partisan interests in favor of a balanced solution. Each side will have no choice but to support some things it doesn't like and take political risks. But with the fiscal cliff looming at the end of the year, time is running out and tough choices are necessary.
Congress faces an end-of-the-year deadline before massive spending cuts kick in and tax breaks begin to expire, including the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of December. The fiscal cliff also includes so-called sequestration -- automatic across-the-board spending cuts set to trigger at the beginning of 2013 if Capitol Hill fails to create a deficit-reduction plan.
The fiscal cliff will produce major across-the-board spending cuts as punishment for Congress' gross failures to compromise. It's time for the public to get involved by contacting your Senators and Representatives urging them to pass year-long legislation and not stop-gap legislation to further exasperate the situation.
It is nice to see a Republican do some work on debt reduction. It seemed that their only plan was talking it down. Taking a stab at the Defense budget and not social programs is a bit off script for him.
Did he start this project before election day?
You got the memo from the people. Good start Tom. You know the president will be supportive of your ideas.
The senator has been a pretty good egg in the political field! Unlike most that are self-serving, he couldn't give a rats-A$$ about that!! He has wrote a book even about the rampant waste OUR govt. has done in many areas backed by BOTH parties ('Back in the Black', I believe)!!! It really a shame he can't stay in the fray and keep looking-out for ALL of us like he has allways done (Far more than OTHERS)!!!!
Get rid of con gress
he makes sense and thats from a liberal dem too bad hes such a whack job on social issues
Maybe there is hope for finding common ground with enough Republicans to get something done.
$68 billion over 10 years? Really? Seriously? He needed 74 pages to save $6.8 billion per year??????
So barely even 10% of 1 year worth of defense spending.
1% of the defense budget a year.
What a joke.
calling this a fiscal cliff is another example of the media covering for the Acorn Alumni. what it really is: A TAX INCREASE. what the he** does an "end to tax cuts" mean. these tax rates were in place for 12 years and should continue but Obama is "raising" these tax rates. by the way, does anyone believe, given the corruption of this admin and the fact that obama is a former Acorn atty that he actually won this election without fraud? i'm not asking the dems on this post, because, of course you know your party is all about fraud.
Yes I believe and so do millions of other people (including Republicans) that Obama won this election fairly.